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BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

NNSA Los Alamos Field Office Manager Ted Wyka told Los Alamos County Council Tuesday evening that the Department of Energy plans to join with the Los Alamos National Laboratory to install speed enforcement/photo cameras along the Truck Route, in addition to speed cameras that will be installed on Laboratory property.

“We hope to have them fully operational next month. We will assess whether other areas around LANL require speed enforcement/photo cameras by reviewing historical and other pre-existing data regarding speeds, motor vehicle crashes, citizen complaints, and enforcement activities to make sure that we address all affected or impacted areas,” Wyka said.

He began by noting that LANL has a strong safety culture in terms of mission activities inside the lab and that safety is always his primary concern.

“I want to spend some time discussing how we would like to improve traffic related safety. The Field Office will spearhead an initiative to deter and eliminate aggressive driving, specifically, speeding, cutting off other drivers, failing to signal, failing to yield, tailgating, road rage and other intimidation measures in and around the greater Los Alamos National Laboratory area. The initiative is in response to several complaints, near-misses, accidents, and unfortunately, fatalities that occurred recently,” Wyka said.

He said due to the on-going nature of the situation and complexity of the issues, the Los Alamos Field Office will solicit support, input and recommendations from all major entities involved including Los Alamos County, Los Alamos Police Department (LAPD), neighboring Pueblos, the State of New Mexico, and federal entities, such as the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park Service.

“My primary objective is to significantly improve overall driver perception of safety in and around the Los Alamos area. To make this happen, I’ve tasked my team to explore concrete solutions that hopefully will result in fewer crashes or incidents involving aggressive driving/road rage, which we hope will lead to reduced severity of injuries, reduce the number of citizen complaints and requests for police response,” Wyka said.

He indicated that the Lab will work with LAPD to establish a more effective speed enforcement program, while exploring other effective enforcement countermeasures, including working with the State Department of Transportation/Engineering on additional road safety initiatives. 

“All this would be developed with increased communications regarding driver safety and awareness through town halls, publication of articles and other messaging initiatives to both employees and the community. The Field Office hopes to meet with affected stakeholders and develop a timeline for these initiatives. We will inform the Secretary of Energy, NNSA Administrator, the New Mexico Congressional Delegation, state legislators and representatives of these initiatives,” Wyka said.

Later, during the question and answer period with Council, he said safety is his prime responsibility as the lead federal manager for Los Alamos.

“We’re looking at all options – obviously the roads that we manage and control, those speed cameras are going up now and will be activated within the next month or so. We would like to work with the County on supporting that as well. We have had discussions with most of the core governors about putting speed cameras in their locations. The traffic on 502/285 to Espanola is of real concern,” Wyka said. “For employees, this is a terror part of their day, coming to and going home from work, and it has to stop. It’s going to be speed camera controls, working with the County as well as Santa Fe County and State Police on additional patrols – and changing the culture to where speeding is not tolerated, especially if it’s a repetitive type of speeding.”

He said parking violations are also being looked at.

“If you can’t follow these rules coming safely in to your work and parking legitimately, you’re probably not going to be in the facility. It’s really changing that culture,” Wyka said.

Watch for more reports on issues from Mr. Wyka’s presentation to Council on the Los Alamos Reporter page.